I did some basic googling and decided the easiest solution was to install a newer version from macports. However, today I decided to revisit this and actually try to solve it since I was moving from macports to homebrew. I found this nice article that suggested re-installing the 10.6.2 Combo update would resolve the problem. That sounds like a horrible idea since I’m no longer running 10.6.2 and who knows what that would break down the road, but I went ahead and downloaded the update to look at the contents. Using Pacifist I opened the installer package and had it verify that the svn binaries and libraries were all alright and they all passed with out a complaint. This didn’t make sense because clearly something was wrong with one of the libraries or binaries for subversion. After a little while I decided to have Pacifist re-install the svn binaries and libraries from the update to see if it fixed the problem. Before I did this I checked the other OS X update receipts to see if the subversion binaries or libraries have been modified since the 10.6.2 update and found they hadn’t. After the re-install everything looks like it’s back to normal! So, if you are having this issue and don’t want to use a newer version, grab the 10.3.2 combo update and Pacifist and go to town.

I really want to like SpiderOak, especially when you consider the following features:

Whole cloud de-duplication – All of the data you backup to spideroak, regardless of the source is de-duplicated

The ability to share files in your cloud with others

‘Zero-knowledge’ encryption

Cross platform client

Support of open source

However, I keep finding problems that prevent me from using it as my primary backup software. As with BackBlaze I did some testing with Backup Bouncer v0.2.0 to see how the latest version of SpiderOak (v3.6.9680) fairs with the meta-data that Mac OS X generates. Results follow.

As you can see, SpiderOak fails all of the backup-bouncer tests. Combine this with the password issues I’ve mentioned previously and it looks like SpiderOak still has a ways to go before I can seriously consider using it to house my data.

No basic permissions? No timestamps? And no extended attributes? Wow, this means restores from BackBlaze will only get your data back and that you loose all of the hidden data on your files… What does this mean? Well, for example if you have a file that is locked and you restore it, the new file won’t be locked. Examples of other things that get lost: whether or not a file extension is hidden, creation dates, modify dates, symlinks, if a downloaded file hasn’t been opened yet (quarantined), finder comments and where you downloaded an item from. What is the logic here? Is it really that much effort to back this up? Too much space used if you back this up? I wonder how Mozy fares in this test.